Inkheart

 Released Year: 2008

Directed by Iain Softley

Casted by:

Brendan Fraser as Mortimer "Mo" Folchart

Eliza Bennett as Meggie Folchart

Paul Bettany as Dustfinger

Andy Serkis as Capricorn

Helen Mirren as Elinor Loredan

Rafi Gavron as Farid

Jim Broadbent as Fenoglio

Sienna Guillory as Teresa "Resa" Folchart

 Story:

One evening, whilst Mortimer "Mo" Folchart and his wife Teresa "Resa" Folchart are reading the fairy tale "Little Red Riding Hood" to their baby daughter Meggie, a red velvet hood appears out of nowhere. Several years later, a much older Meggie travels with her father Mo to visit an old book shop in Italy, unaware that he secretly looking for a copy of the book, Inkheart. Shortly after finding one, Meggie comes across a marten with horns outside the shop, who tries to bite her fingers. Suddenly, a man appears from the shadows, claiming to be an old friend while revealing the marten's name as Gwin. When Mo comes out of the book shop, he quickly recognizes the man as a person called Dustfinger, whom quickly asks to be read back into the book, only for Mo to flees with Meggie from him.

Travelling across Italy, Mo takes Meggie on a visit to Meggie's great aunt Elinor, whereupon he reveals to Meggie why he fled from Dustfinger. While she was young, Mo read to her from Inkheart, inadvertently freeing Dustfinger as a result, due to a gift he possessed from birth, that marks him as a "Silver Tongue". Unfortunately, his gift also freed the book's villain Capricorn and several of his henchman, but at the same time, losing Resa after being forced to flee with his infant daughter. Soon, Dustfinger reappears seeking Mo, accompanied by Capricorn's minion, Basta, who quickly captures Mo and his family and takes back Inkheart, destroying Elinor's valuable library in the process.

The four are taken to Capricorn's new castle in the real world, and imprisoned in the stables, which house various creatures from different storybooks, including the winged monkeys from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the minotaur from the story of Theseus, and a unicorn. During their imprisonment, Mo explains to Meggie and Elinor about his gift, stating that when he reads a person or an object out of a book, someone from the real world is sent into it, hence why his wife disappeared. Capricorn, interested in using his gift, forces Mo to read out items from books, causing him to get a stash of treasure from one of the stories in The Arabian Nights, while causing one of the 40 Thieves, named Farid, to be brought out as well and forced into imprisonment. Dustfinger, who believed he could get his chance to return into the book, quickly learns Capricorn tricked him, and so prompts a quick escape using the famous tornado from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz; during the escape, he opts not to tell Mo that his wife Resa is in the village, but has lost her voice.

Following their escape, Meggie offers the idea of finding the author of Inkheart, a man named Fenoglio, who may have access to a copy of the rare-to-find book. Whilst Elinor decides to leave them to recover what is left of her book collection, the rest head for the author's location, with Dustfinger initially staying with Farid to teach him to juggle fire, yet secretly afraid of learning his fate in the book. When he does travel with Mo to find and meet with Fenoglio, the author's ecstatic mood, upon seeing his creation live and breath before him, causes Dustfinger to discover that his efforts to save Gwin at the end of the book brings about his death. Angry, he berates the author for not being his god and that he has the freedom to chose whatever fate he wants, before eventually confessing to Mo, who Resa is in the book, that his wife was in Capricorn's castle.

Both he and Mo take Fenoglio's car, leaving Meggie behind with the author, where during the journey, they quickly discover that Farid had stowed away in the car's trunk, and take him along at his insistence. Whilst away, Meggie begins reading a number of books out loud, and discovers she is a "Silver Tongue" herself, just before Basta arrives with men to capture Mo. Upon learning that she can read things out of books, after the author notices she brought Toto from the The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Basta takes her and Fenoglio back to Capricorn. Elinor, who has a change of heart and does not take the train back to her home, returns to the author's home and quickly senses trouble, pursuing the captured pair. At the castle, Capricorn reveals to Meggie his intentions of bringing the monstrous Shadow from Inkheart, revealing that, although he burned all the copies, he spared one for such a purpose, threatening to harm her mother if she fails to comply. During this time, Mo sneaks into the castle, but is captured by Capricorn's henchmen.

After escaping his cell, Mo attempts to free Meggie, Resa and Fenoglio from imprisonment, as Capricorn forces Meggie to read out the Shadow from the book. Meanwhile, Dustfinger sneaks back into the castle with Farid and decide to set it alight, after his conscience gets the better of him. The distraction this causes allows Fenoglio to give Toto a rewrite he made to help Meggie stop Capricorn's plan. The plan partly works until Capricorn gains the upper hand. Just then, Elinor arrives with the creatures Capricorn imprisoned, giving Mo the opportunity to quickly throw his daughter a pen, allowing her to write out a story on her arm to combat Capricorn's plan. Meggie quickly reads out her creation, which causes Capricorn to turn into dust, vanishes his henchmen, destroys the Shadow, and return all the read out creatures back where they belong, including Toto. In addition, she grants Fenoglio's wish, and send him into Inkheart to live in the world he created, while restoring her mother's voice, allowing her and Mo to finally reunite with her, before fleeing as the castle collapses.

Shortly afterwards, Dustfinger, having missed his chance for Meggie to read him back into his book, decides to leave, not wishing to force Mo and his family to do anything without risking their happiness. As he does, Farid catches up with insisting on travelling with him to find another reader to send him back into the copy of Inkheart he had stolen before the castle collapsed. After a moment's hesitation, Dustfinger agrees and the two start off together only to have Mo catch them up and fulfill his promise. Dustfinger is soon transported safely back into Inkheart, where he reunites with his wife Roxane at their home. In the real world, Farid quickly reveals he kept Gwin with him, thus allowing Dustfinger to avoid his fate and have control over his destiny. As Mo and his family leave with Farid, Meggie agrees to teach him how to read while Farid agrees to teach her how to use the dragon breath.

 L² Scored: 9/10

L² Comment: 

Till now I still have not find the novel of Inkheart which was written by Cornelia Funke. Not sure how originally the movie follows the novel, but definitely its a very exciting movie and full of fantasy. Brendan  Fraser always give me a dreamy kind of image. His character is usually brighter whenever he was in this kind of fantasy movie... Overall the movie is quite good, how i wish i can find the novel in Big Bad Wolf lol~

Hellboy 2: The Golden Army

 Released Year: 2008

Directed by Guillermo del Toro

 

Casted by:

Ron Perlman as Hellboy
 Selma Blair as Liz Sherman
 Doug Jones as Abe Sapien
 Luke Goss as Prince Nuada
 Anna Walton as Princess Nuala

 Story:

During Christmas 1955, an 11-year-old Hellboy is told a bedtime story by his adoptive father, Trevor Broom, involving an ancient war between man and magical creatures, started by man's greed. After defeat of the magical creatures' forces, the master of the goblin blacksmiths offers to build an indestructible mechanical army for the elven King Balor. Encouraged by his son Prince Nuada, Balor orders the building of this Golden Army. The humans are devastated by the army. Balor is ridden with guilt and forms a truce with the humans: Man will keep his cities and the magical creatures will keep their forests. Nuada does not agree with the truce and leaves in exile. The magical crown controlling the army is broken into three pieces, one going to the humans and the other two kept by the elves.

In the present, Nuada declares war on humanity; he collects the first piece of the crown from an auction, killing everyone at the site by unleashing tooth fairies, and kills his father for the second piece. His twin sister, Princess Nuala, escapes with the final piece. Meanwhile, Hellboy is having issues with his girlfriend Liz, and trouble accepting that their organization, the B.P.R.D. must remain undercover. Investigating the auction slaughter, Hellboy allows himself to be revealed to the world. In the commotion, Abe Sapien discovers Liz is pregnant; she swears him to secrecy as she ponders keeping the child. Furious at Hellboy's actions, the Bureau's superiors send a new B.P.R.D. agent, the ectoplasmic medium Johann Krauss, to take command. With Krauss in charge, the team tracks the tooth fairies to the troll market, an enormous city hidden under the Brooklyn Bridge. Abe stumbles onto Nuala, who has obtained a map leading to the Golden Army, and falls in love with her. She is brought under B.P.R.D. protection following an attack by Nuada's sidekick, the troll Wink, and an elemental forest god, both of which Hellboy kills. During the fight, Hellboy is questioned by Nuada whether it is right to fight for the humans when he too is considered a monster.

Nuada tracks his sister to B.P.R.D. headquarters using their magical bond, which causes them to share wounds and read each other's thoughts. Sensing her brother's arrival, Nuala attempts to destroy the map and hides the final piece of the crown within one of Abe's books. Nuada critically wounds Hellboy with his spear, promising Nuala in exchange for the final crown piece. Unable to remove the spear shard, Liz, Abe and Krauss take Hellboy to the location of the Golden Army in The Giants Causeway, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. They encounter a Bethmoora goblin who brings them before the Angel of Death, who has awaited their arrival. Though warned Hellboy will doom humanity if he lives, and that she will suffer the most from it, Liz pleads for Hellboy's life. The Angel removes the shard from Hellboy's chest and tells Liz to give him a reason to live. She reveals to Hellboy that he will be a father, and he recovers.

The goblin leads the team to the resting place of the Golden Army, where Nuada awaits them. In exchange for Nuala, Abe gives him the last piece of the crown. Nuada awakens the Golden Army, ordering the team's death; the army proves indestructable as the soldiers magically repair themselves. Hellboy challenges Nuada for the crown, and Nuada is forced to accept, since Hellboy's father was a Prince of Sheol. Hellboy defeats Nuada and spares his life, but Nuada tries stabbing him. Nuala commits suicide to stop her brother; the dying Nuada tells Hellboy he will have to choose whether humanity or magical beings must die. Abe psychically shares his feelings with Nuala before she and her brother die. Liz melts the crown, deactivating the Golden Army. As the team leaves the underground compound, Tom Manning reprimands them. Hellboy, Liz, Abe, and Johann resign from the B.P.R.D. Hellboy contemplates his future life with Liz and their baby. Liz corrects him, saying "babies", surprising him with the fact that she is pregnant with twins.

L² Scored: 9/10

L² Comment: 

The second movie is much more better and more exciting than the first movie... There's more spooky aliens this time and i love it very much, though the storyline is predictable, but the production team did a great job on the overall :)

My Mom's New Boyfriend

Released Year: 2008
Directed by George Gallo

Casted by:
Antonio Banderas as Tommy Lucero / Tomas Martinez
Meg Ryan as Martha "Marty" Durand
Colin Hanks as Henry Durand
Selma Blair as Emily Lott
Trevor Morgan as Eddie

Story:

The film begins with Tommy Lucero being caught by French police following a foiled robbery at a museum. Tommy seems confident he will not remain in police custody very long. The film then shift its focus to Henry Durand. Henry had to care for his mother, Marty, when his father died in jail. Now a grown man and an FBI agent, Henry leaves his overweight mother to go work on a case.

Upon returning three years later he finds his mother has lost a considerable amount of weight and is dating several men, one half her age. Henry announces to his mother he has recently become engaged to another FBI agent, Emily. Henry finds himself in a very uneasy state with his newly transformed mother and begins to be extremely protective about her. He confides his worries in his fiancée Emily who does not find anything unusual in Marty's behavior. While having a walk with Henry and Emily, Marty is hit in the head by a toy helicopter being flown by Tommy. Tommy asks to take the trio for a dinner with him at an old Albanian Restaurant as an apology. Henry, who is still protective of his mother, grudgingly concedes to go when he notices how much his mother and Emily want to.

Romance between Marty and Tommy progresses. Henry meanwhile is informed by his FBI superiors that they expect Tommy and two accomplices are going to attempt to steal a sculpture currently on display at a local museum. Along with his fellow agents, Henry spies on his mother around the clock. Many uncomfortable situations arise for Henry as he has to listen into the conversation his mother has with Tommy. While stealing the sculpture, Tommy is betrayed by his gang members shot twice in the chest. He survives due to wearing a ballistic vest however is later caught by Henry and Emily.

Tommy reveals upon them that his real name is Tomas Martinez and he is with the CIA. He has been working undercover trying to apprehend a gang of thieves who are stealing art to fund terrorism. He is concerned the gang will attempt to kill Marty as they know he has been romantically involved with her and she may know about their operation. The trio reaches the Durand house in time to rescues Marty from the gang.

The film ends the gang members taken into custody whilst Tommy kisses Marty and Henry kisses Emily.

L² Scored: 1.5/10

L² Comment:

Though our Meg Ryan is always good in her romance comedy film, but watching 49yo Ryans (this film she was 46yo) to act cute and hot is kinda disgusting, she looks so old... i mean, come on, don't you think its time for her to change?

The whole movie is not that funny though it claims itself as a comedy, for me... the story is simple and a bit stupid. The whole film is not good enough for me even to think of re-watching in my whole life. PUI !!!